“Help me! Please!” I begged, but he simply watched us go with pity in his eyes.
I couldn’t blame him. What was he going to do against a fucking lord of Hell?
“Put me down. I can walk just fine,” I argued, still kicking as we headed deeper into the cave. I wasn’t sure where he was taking me exactly, but maybe I could give him the slip if he just put me down.
Mammon laughed as though I’d told a joke. “Did you forget? I’ve seen how much of a runner you are. Gonna keep you safe and sound until we reach the ship.”
Ship?I balked, wondering why the fuck there would be a ship. Then, I remembered the demon ferrymen. I might not have seen one of the ferries yet, but Belial told me they existed. Were there other lords with vessels that could sail the bloody waters?
Mammon’s boat was little more than a glorified sailboat and hardly qualified as a ship, but I wasn’t about to tell the Lord of Greed what I thought of his little dinghy.
It was made out of metal, with black sails and iron details. He dropped me to the deck the second we were on it, and I screamed when a creature darted toward me. A small, ugly, beady-eyed, goblin-looking creature quickly wound a chain around my naked body and locked it into place around a pole.
It then hobbled away to the steering wheel, barking orders at the rest of the crew as they hobbled into view. I tried to move, but the chain weighing me down was too heavy.
“You’ll be glad you’re naked,” Mammon said, grabbing the wheel and guiding the boat down the Styx. “It’s hot where we’re headed.”
“Your realm?” I asked, hoping he would elaborate.
He only leveled me with a glare, his red eyes flickering. “The Forge.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Belial
The demon Lord ofPride screamed in unholy agony as I tore his head off, but all I could hear were Rayven’s screams as she came on my cock.
Vine’s death came quickly, and I took no joy from it, unlike when I’d murdered Asmodeus.
He begged me to spare him, but I denied his request. He’d done nothing to help Rayven when she passed through his realm, half-drowned in the Styx. He’d known her soul belonged to me, yet he stood idly by.
I tuned out his last screams, replaying my time in Rayven’s dream.
She’d taken me so perfectly.
I’d manipulated the dream to ensure she could fit me. When we truly mated, it would be harder for her little pussy to take me in this form, but her reaction made me hopeful.
My little human had a penchant for pain. I’d just have to tease and work her up so she could take me, and I’d savor every moment.
With Vine’s head added to my oar, I made my way through his palace back to the Styx, flowing through his throne room.
Cecil and Holga were huddled on the gondola bench, watching as I approached. They said nothing when I climbed into the ferry.
“The Lord of Pride…” my librarian muttered, his toothy eye sockets gaping at the latest edition to my collection.
I thought I’d feel a twinge of guilt for Vine’s death. Now that it was done, I felt nothing. That’s what Rayven did to me.
The only life I cared for was hers now.
So, when I pulled my ferry up to dock outside Leviathan’s cliffside palace, I maintained my steely indifference to the prospect of his death as well.
Of all the lords of the nine realms, I would have thought Leviathan would be the one to remain loyal to me. But what Rayven told me had me second-guessing my faith in my relationship with the Lord of Envy.
If I found out he was in on the kidnapping, there'd be Hell to pay.
I demanded directions to Leviathan’s chamber from a servant soul who cowered as I loomed over him. With a shaky hand, he pointed me in the right direction, and I swept past him, charging down the hallway carved from stone.
It always struck me as odd how I was the lord of death and bone, yet I seemed to be the only one who couldn’t stand living in the ground. I took several sets of stairs carved from stone untilthe narrow corridor opened to the ocean—Leviathan’s chamber being the only part of his home above sea level.
